About nine months after we tipped our hat on what we were working on, iConsole Alpha 1 is now available.
We’ve met with countless developers, engineers, and company partners (both announced and waiting-in-the-wings). It’s been an amazing nine months, juggling everything from corporate filings, to actually writing the code to piece iConsole together. Today is a great day, because it’s the first time we’re able to turn to actual users, and ask for their feedback.
And, that’s all the time I’m going to take up with this post. Go, download it! Let me know what you think!
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I guess you kind of scared me off by writing that wiki. I finally got my HTPC to a good place where my wife can using it using XBMC – I don’t know if I want to wipe my C:, install this, find the drivers, not have the remote work, confuse everything, then upgrade a week later.
I downloaded the iso, I’m interested in a flash drive install.
Daniel,
We did make the Alpha 1 text a bit intimidating… because it’s alpha quality software. People need to expect bugs right now, and if you have a working HTPC setup going (and use it regularly), you can always install alongside Windows.
However, keep in mind that you should back up everything on the Windows-side of your system if you are going to do that. iConsole dynamically deploys next to Windows, reserving space on your hard drive to operate as a second operating system.
We’re certainly not aiming for “weekly turnarounds”. A small update will be issued tonight that fixes one minor bug (the graphics driver bug that you mentioned), that doesn’t affect most users. You won’t need to reinstall, the workaround is already posted. So, nobody will need to “upgrade a week later.” Alpha 2 is (probably several) weeks away at the earliest.
Remotes should work just as well as on XBMC for Linux, just without all the setup headaches of getting there. Boxee and our components do not mess around with that. Even Bluetooth remotes should work great.
As to installing on a flash drive, it’s not something we support. Though, we’re sure some users will do that… we’re working on features and technology that requires the speed (and storage capacity) of a typical hard drive. Also, installing on flash drives adds a layer of difficulty (which would require more “scary text” to test it out on).
Alpha 1 isn’t scary if you have what we recommend; everything backed up on a spare system. When we get to beta and release stages, we’re going to fully support installing alongside Windows on your existing, production HTPC.